"Dean Ing - Silent Thunder" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ing Dean)

concern seemed unusually acute. He is not a man who strains at trifles. Sincerely,
Matthew L. Alden.

Ramsay tapped the edge of the envelope against his teeth, fighting the urge to discard it,
wondering whether Alden was a real person and, if so, whether he was the dupe of
some subtle loony. Washington had more of those per acre than any asylum. Then he
sighed and slit the little envelope and unfolded the sheet of paper, with its single spacing
on both sides.

Two minutes later, Ramsay dropped the page and vented an almost silent whistle as he
stared at the wall above his microwave oven. Then he resumed reading. He then reread
the whole thing slowly while sleet ran along his spine. The paper accentuated the slight
tremor of his hands.

At least one assertion, Ramsay had heard as non-news, the kind of fact you edited out
unless it became important enough to warrant the ruin of a dead man's reputation. The
now-deceased Richard Parker had frequented a woman's Bethesda apartment, motive
unknown but presumably not for prayer meetings. That corroboration made it possible
for Ramsay to half-believe in an Austrian woman who had, for a price, delivered a copy
of her father's recently discovered diary to a State Department aide to Undersecretary
Parker. Innsbruck meant little more than skiing to Ramsay, and the name 'Dieter Mainz'
meant nothing at all. As the police liked to say, at least it listened; it seemed plausible.

It was the body of the letter that became so wildly implausible that Alan Ramsay could
almost see H O A X between the lines. And yet? Walt Kalvin, the incisive chief of Rand's
White House staff, had not been born an American, so under the Constitution he could
never run for President. He could, however, help groom a Missouri preacher named
Harrison Rand for a senatorial slot and, later, for the race to the White House.

Ramsay also had to admit that there had been scuttlebutt to the effect that Kalvin had
been offered a cabinet position. Why had he refused? According to the files of Richard
Parker, Kalvin did not want to undergo the kind of scrutiny Congress could bring to bear
if he were President Rand's choice for, say, Secretary of State or Interior. In short,
Congress could have smirched Kalvin's image. But Congress had no such power over
Rand's choice of his Chief of Staff? which was increasingly a crucial position in the White
House. Ramsay's 'True Believer' commentary had touched on the dangers of zealots in
government, and the zeal with which Kalvin attacked his job. In passing, Ramsay had
observed that Walter Kalvin, a zealot without a cabinet position, was becoming Secretary
of Everything in the Rand administration.

He wouldn't have to step down when the President does, either, Ramsay murmured
aloud. No Senate confirmations, no votes to worry about. If succeeding presidents
wanted him, Kalvin could hover over the Oval Office as long as he lives. But he'd have to
have the devil's own charisma for that. More than Rand himself. Ramsay looked down at
the page, not really seeing the print; realizing that if there was any truth to this tale,
Walter Kalvin already had the devil's own charisma in something called Donnersprache.
Maybe that was the source of Rand's personal magnetism, too.

If this Mainz diary could be believed? if indeed a Dieter Mainz had ever existed!? it was
possible to add the kind of vibrato and timbre to a voice that brought overwhelming